[MEncoder-users] Re: how capture real video stream

[The Wanderer]

Nitin Jain wrote:

> On 12/11/06, Paul Arthur <flowerysong00 at yahoo.com> wrote:
> 
>> On 2006-12-11, The Wanderer <inverseparadox at comcast.net> wrote:

>>> You're not going to get argument from me about its being
>>> misleading; however, the ones who would have to be convinced are
>>> people like Rich Felker, who seem to be of the opinion that the
>>> observed rate of failure to interpret the mesage correctly is
>>> nowhere near high enough to justify removing the inside joke.
>> 
>> FWIW, I found it perfectly clear the first time I encountered it.
>> I also laughed heartily, but I'm not sure that providing people
>> like me amusement is sufficient reason to keep the message so
>> obfuscated.
> 
> Er, doesn't the ;) say it all?

That's the argument. However, for many people, the smiley seems to get
lost behind the well-known fatal error "Core dumped". Additionally,
while the smiley (if noticed) may make it clear that this is a joke of
some kind, it does *not* necessarily make it clear what actually
happened.

For what it's worth, AFAIR I fell into neither the "recognized it right
away" nor the "thought it was an actual crash" camp; however, I have
seen far too many people be confused by this to be remotely comfortable
leaving it as it is... and every change I can think of which would clear
up the potential for confusion would also eliminate the joke, which (as
I've said) many of the developers seem to find inherently unacceptable.

-- 
       The Wanderer

Warning: Simply because I argue an issue does not mean I agree with any
side of it.

Secrecy is the beginning of tyranny.